‘Dance partner’ hunt heats up in gold, fueled by megamerger push

IAMGOLD Corporation, which produces nearly one million ounces of gold each year, is looking is looking for projects capable of 150,000/oz of gold per year and has two million oz of reserves. The company made the announcement during a corporate presentation in October. Bloomberg reported that the company is looking for transactions in the range of $300 million to $500 million.

North Bay Resources Inc. (OTCBB: NBRI) ("North Bay" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with Devlin's Bench Mining Ltd and P. Wright Contracting Ltd ("PWC") to enter into a joint-venture on North Bay's Fraser River Platinum Project in British Columbia. The Fraser River Platinum Property is located near Lytton in south-central British Columbia, Canada, and covers approximately 4.5 kilometers of placer claims along the Fraser River. The property includes the Van Winkle Bar, from which BC MINFLE 092ISW078 and BC Open File 1986-7 have documented historical assays of 5681 grams (182.67 ounces) per tonne platinum from black sand concentrate.

New Gold Inc. ("New Gold") (TSX:NGD)(NYSE Amex:NGD) and Silver Quest Resources Ltd. ("Silver Quest") (TSX VENTURE:SQI) today jointly announce a binding letter agreement whereby New Gold will acquire, through a plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement"), all of the outstanding common shares of Silver Quest. Under the terms of the Arrangement, Silver Quest shareholders will receive 0.09 of a New Gold share (the "Share Consideration") for each Silver Quest share held and one common share in a new Yukon-focused precious metals exploration company, McIntyre Minerals Inc. ("McIntyre") for every three Silver Quest shares held (the "Spinco Consideration").

A former BC Premier was among those who witnessed a shocking and unusual protest earlier this week at a gathering of Canadian and European energy leaders. Gordon Campbell, who was recently named Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, was making his first official appearance in his new role when a man and woman suddenly stripped down to their undergarments and jumped onto the conference table. The Vancouver Sun describes what happened next: British poet Peter Bearder a.k.a Pete the Temp, clad in Union Jack boxers, and British/Australian UK Tar Sands Network campaigner Emily Coats, in white Maple-Leaf underwear, dumped molasses on themselves and then jumped onto a table in the gilded conference room to kiss and fondle each other for roughly a minute.

Harry Winston Diamond shares fell 11 cents on Friday despite a successful Q3 production report. The company (TSX:HW, NYSE:HWD) said it processed 3% more ore at its 40%-owned Diavik Diamond Mine in the Canadian north, producing 1.9 million carats from 0.6 million tonnes of ore. That translates to an 8% increase in recovered carats from the same period in 2010 due to higher processed ore grades, says Harry Winston.

Quadra FNX Mining Ltd. ("Quadra FNX" or the "Company") (TSX:QUX) announces that consolidated payable production for the three months ended September 30 increased 9% compared to Q2 2011 and 30% compared to Q1 2011 and totaled 60 million pounds of copper, 26 thousand ounces of total precious metals ("TPMs") and 3 million pounds of nickel. Paul Blythe, President & CEO comments; "This is our strongest quarter since 2009, driven by Robinson and continuing strong performance from our Sudbury operations. We are seeing continuing and significant improvements in production at Robinson. The various measures that we have taken are delivering increased flexibility and productivity.

The combination of White Tiger Gold (CVE:WTG) and Century Mining received approval on Wednesday from the Government of Canada under the Investment Canada Act. Century Mining will become an indirect subsidiary of White Tiger. "We appreciate the approval given by the Government of Canada. We are now one step closer to creating a larger, more diversified gold mining company with multiple properties in various stages of production and development in Canada, Russia, and Peru" said Daniel Major, President and Chief Executive Officer of Century and Dr. Geoffrey Cowley, Chief Executive Officer of White Tiger in a joint statement.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. JEC +3.06%announced today that it received new contracts in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 from seven clients in the Alberta Oil Sands to support steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and bitumen upgrading expansion projects. Officials estimate the combined total construction value of the awarded projects at more than $1.4 billion. Project scopes include engineering procurement and construction (EPC), front end engineering and design (FEED), fabrication and construction management (CM) on a variety of mid- and large-cap projects.

First Majestic (TSE:FR) announced that its Q3 silver production was 4% lower from the prior quarter and 6% lower from the same quarter in 2010. The company produced 1,708,865 silver ounces in Q3 compared to 1,780,379 in Q2. In early morning trading, the company's stock was up 20 cents to $17.69 a share. The company believes that silver production should increase due to operational improvements at La Parrilla, its Mexican mine. First Majestic completed a new 1,000 tpd flotation circuit, which will replace an old 425 tpd flotation circuit and will allow silver production to ramp up in the fourth quarter.